Instantaneous power floating frame controller

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a method of controlling a power converter ( 20 ) of a synchronous machine system ( 10 ), the method comprising sampling phase-current values between the power converter ( 20 ) and the synchronous machine ( 30 ); selecting a reference frame; regulating a current vector to align with the selected reference frame, the selected reference frame having a direct-axis component and a quadrature-axis component; estimating rotor speed and position as a function of instantaneous power; adjusting the selected reference frame, based on estimated rotor position, to synchronize the selected reference frame with a magnetic axis of the rotor, thereby generating a synchronized floating frame; and applying the synchronized floating frame to control the power converter ( 20 ). The present invention also related to a power converter controlling apparatus ( 100 ) for controlling a power converter ( 20 ) of a synchronous machine system ( 10 ) without use of a machine position sensor.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority under 35 USC §119(e) of ProvisionalApplication No. 60/557,710 filed Mar. 31, 2004, the entire contents ofwhich are herein incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to electrical power conversion, and moreparticularly to a controller for a power converter, such as an inverterof a synchronous AC motor drive system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A synchronous AC motor typically utilizes rotor position sensors toprovide information regarding the position of the motor's rotor withrespect to the motor's stator windings. Such positional informationallows for proper conversion of power that is supplied to the statorwindings. Rotor position sensors such as Hall effected devices aretypically mounted in the stator, proximate the stator winding, toprovide intelligence regarding rotor position. Such rotor positionsensors, however, can be unreliable due to mechanism alignment problemsand temperature incompatibility problems between the stator windings andelectronic components such as the Hall effect devices. Moreover, therotor position sensors can be difficult to mount to the motor duringmotor assembly, especially for multi-pole motors. In multi-pole motors,the electrical misalignment angle is equivalent to the angularmechanical misalignment angle multiplied by the number of pole pairs.

Due these and other drawbacks, sensorless techniques have been developedto determine rotor position. One sensorless rotor position detectiontechnique observes back EMF voltages at the stator windings. Anothertechnique, which applies a floating frame control (FFC) scheme, has beendescribed by Huggett et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,136, which in herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In the FFC scheme,motor phase-current is detected directly and used to estimate rotorspeed/position, and also to control the reactive current to zero. Morespecifically, sensorless rotor speed/position detection is combined withcurrent control to achieve a closed-loop equilibrium condition in whichan inverter voltage vector (V_(ωt)) finds a position that results in azero direct-axis current component value. Under this condition, areference frame (floating frame) is synchronized with the magnetic axisof the rotor and can be used to control power conversion.

Such control results in unity power factor during steady stateoperation, which is an advantage for high power inverter design.Although the FFC scheme disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,136 iseffective in many applications and conditions, the speed/positionestimation in the FCC scheme is embedded in the direct-axis currentregulator, which makes the loop tuning sensitive in some applications.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controllinga power converter of a synchronous machine system, without the use ofdedicated rotor position sensors. In one aspect, the present inventionis a power converter control method comprising: sampling phase-currentvalues between the power converter and the synchronous machine;selecting a floating reference frame; regulating a current vector toalign with the reference frame, the reference frame having a direct-axiscomponent and a quadrature-axis component; estimating rotor speed andposition as a function of instantaneous power; adjusting the selectedreference frame, based on estimated rotor position, to synchronize theselected reference frame with the magnetic axis of the rotor, therebygenerating a synchronized floating frame; and applying the synchronizedfloating frame to control the power converter.

In another aspect, the present invention is a power convertercontrolling apparatus for controlling a power converter of a synchronousmachine system, the controlling apparatus comprising a currentcontroller for generating power converter command signals by: samplingphase-current values between the power converter and the synchronousmachine; selecting a reference frame; regulating a current vector toalign with the reference frame, the reference frame having a direct-axiscomponent and a quadrature-axis component; adjusting the selectedreference frame, based on estimated rotor position, to synchronize theselected reference frame with the magnetic axis of the rotor, therebygenerating a synchronized floating frame; and applying the synchronizedfloating frame to control the power converter. The controlling apparatusfurther comprises a rotor position estimator for generating theestimated rotor position as a function of instantaneous power.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a synchronous machine drive system to whichprinciples of the present invention may be applied to control powerconversion;

FIG. 2 is a general block diagram of a power conversion controller inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating, in greater detail, functionalelements of the power conversion controller of FIG. 2 in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a floating frame synchronizingoperation in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIGS. 5A–5C are vector diagrams illustrating the concept of floatingframe synchronizing in accordance with principles of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention are more specifically set forth inthe following description, with reference to the appended drawings. Inthe following description and accompanying drawings like elements aredenoted with similar reference numbers. Further, well-known elements andrelated explanations are omitted so as not to obscure the inventiveconcepts presented herein.

In accordance with aspects of the present invention, a FFC-based controlapparatus measures multi-phase line current, calculates a referenceframe that synchronizes with rotor position/speed based on vectorcontrol and sensorless rotor position/speed estimation. In accordancewith an implementation of the present invention, instantaneous power,including imaginary power (O) and real power (P), is calculated todetermine rotor position/speed. The synchronized reference frame is usedto control a power converter. The instantaneous power floating framecontroller can drive a synchronous machine without the use of rotorposition sensors.

FIG. 1 illustrates a synchronous motor system 10 to which principles ofthe present invention may be applied to perform sensorless powerconverter control. The synchronous motor system 10 includes thefollowing main components: a synchronous motor 30; a multi-phase powerconverter 20; a power source 40; a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)Generator and switch driver 50; and a controller 100. The synchronousmotor 30 may be a three-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM),although principles of the present invention are not limited to such anenvironment. The power converter 20 may be an inverter for converting DCpower from power source 40 into three-phase AC power, e.g., utilizing aconfiguration of insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) undercontrol of the PWM Generator and switch driver 50 (pulse widthmodulation (PWM) control). The controller 100 controls the powerinverter 20 via the PWM Generator and switch driver 50 so that the powerconverter 20 outputs the desired multi-phase AC power to the statorwindings of motor 30. Thus, during operation of the synchronous motor30, the power converter 20 converts DC power from the power source 40into multi-phase AC power and supplies such multi-phase AC power tostator windings of the motor 30, creating a rotating magnetic field thatinteracts with the rotor's magnetic field to create torque. Thus, propercontrol of the power converter 20, as a function of rotorposition/speed, is necessary to generate a rotating magnetic field thatresults in efficient motor function, particularly for a variable speeddrive system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating elements of the controller 100according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the embodimentof FIG. 2, the controller 100 includes: a current controller 110 forproducing voltage commands (V_(a), V_(b), and V_(c)); and aspeed/position estimating unit 130 for generating a speed estimateω_(est), and a position estimate θ_(est). Although the currentcontroller 110 and the speed/position estimating unit 130 are shown asdiscrete elements, it should be recognized that this illustration is forease of explanation and that the functions of these elements may becombined in the same physical element, e.g., in the same microcontrolleror in one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC).

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating functional components of thecurrent controller 110 and the speed/position estimating unit 130 ingreater detail, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, the controller 110includes a Clarke transform unit 122 for transforming multi-phase linecurrent values I_(a), I_(b), I_(c) into direct and quadrature componentsof a stationary stator frame α, β; a Park transform unit 124 forcalculating rotating reference frame quantities I_(q) and I_(d); areactive current proportional integral (PI) controller 116 forgenerating a voltage reference V_(d) as a function of I_(d); an I_(q)reference value generating PI controller 112, which generates a torquecurrent reference based on the difference between a speed commandω_(ref) and estimated rotor speed ω_(est); a torque current PIcontroller 114 for generating a quadrature component voltage referenceV_(q) for torque control; an inverse Park transform unit 118 fortransforming voltage references V_(d) and V_(q) into αβ quantities; andan inverse Clarke transform unit 120 for transforming the αβ quantitiesinto three-phase voltage commands V_(a), V_(b), and V_(c). It will berecognized that the configuration of the current controller 110 isconsistent with a conventional arrangement for vector control of a PMSM.

The speed/position estimating unit 130 includes an instantaneous powercalculation unit 132; a power factor angle calculator unit 134 forcalculating the power factor angle; a speed estimating PI controller 136for calculating estimated speed ω_(est) based on the power factor angle;and an integrator 138 for calculating position θ_(est) based onestimated speed ω_(est).

Both estimated speed ω_(est) and position θ_(est) are fed into thecurrent controller 110, which performs vector control to generatevoltage commands V_(a), V_(b), V_(c). Operation of the currentcontroller 110 and the speed/position estimating unit 130 will next bedescribed with reference to the flow diagram of FIG. 4 and the vectordiagrams of FIGS. 5A–5C.

Initially, multi-phase line current values I_(a), I_(b), and I_(c) areobtained (step S302) and fed into the Clarke transform unit 122, whichcalculates stationary reference frame values I_(α), I_(β) (step S304) bycalculating:

$\begin{matrix}{I_{\alpha} = {\frac{1}{3}\left( {{2\; I_{a}} - I_{b} - I_{c}} \right)}} \\{{I_{\beta} = {\frac{\sqrt{3}}{3}{\left( {I_{b} - I_{c}} \right).}}}\mspace{31mu}}\end{matrix}$

Next, the Park transform unit 124 calculates rotating reference framevalues I_(d) and I_(q) (step S306) by calculating:I _(d) =I _(α)cos θ_(est) +I _(β)sin θ_(est)I _(q) =−I _(α)sin θ_(est) +I _(β)cos θ_(est)

The stationary reference frame α, β and the selected rotating referenceframe q_(est) and d_(est) can be seen in the vector diagrams 5A–5C. Thedifference between I_(d) and a reference value (e.g., 0) is input to thereactive current PI controller 116 to generate a voltage reference V_(d)to minimize such an error (i.e., closed-loop control). As is known inthe art, vector control for controlling the reactive current I_(d) tozero aligns the current vector I_(ωt) with the floating reference frame,as illustrated for example in FIG. 5B. The torque current PI controller114 generates voltage reference V_(q) as a function of the differencebetween I_(q) and the I _(q) reference (I_(q-ref)), which is based onthe difference between a speed command value ω_(ref) and the estimatedrotor speed ω_(est). The inverse Park transform unit 118 converts V_(d)and V_(q) into the stationary frame V_(α) and V_(β) by calculating:V _(α) =V _(d) cos θ_(est) −V _(q) sin θ_(est)V _(β) =V _(d) sin θ_(est) +V _(q) cos θ_(est)

The inverse Clarke transform unit 120 performs an inverse Clarketransform to generate command voltages V_(a), V_(b), and V_(c).

$\begin{matrix}{{V_{a} = V_{\alpha}}\mspace{149mu}} \\{V_{b} = {{- \frac{1}{2}}\left( {V_{\alpha} - {\sqrt{3}V_{\beta}}} \right)}} \\{V_{c} = {{- \frac{1}{2}}\left( {V_{\alpha} + {\sqrt{3}V_{\beta}}} \right)}}\end{matrix}$

The instantaneous power calculator 132 of the speed/position estimatingunit 130 calculates imaginary power (Q) and real power (P) bycalculating:P=V _(q) I _(q) +V _(d) I _(d)Q=V _(q) I _(d) −V _(d) I _(q)

The power factor angle calculator 134 calculates the power factor angleby calculating:θ=Arctg(Q/P)

As seen for example in FIG. 5A, the power factor angle represents theangular difference between the voltage vector V_(ωt) and the currentvector I_(ωt), which is minimized for proper alignment of the floatingframe. The speed estimating PI controller 136 determines ω_(est) basedon Δθ, for example by applying a phase lock loop transfer function:

$\omega_{est} = {\frac{{K_{PLL}T_{PLL}S} + 1}{{T_{PLL}S^{2}} + {K_{PLL}T_{PLL}S} + 1}\omega_{V}}$where: K_(PLL), T_(PLL) are the gain and time constant of the speedestimator PI that has transfer function as

${K_{PLL}\left( {1 + \frac{1}{T_{PLL}S}} \right)};$

-   -   ω_(v) is voltage vector rotating speed; ω_(r) is rotor rotating        speed, in steady state ω_(v)=ω_(r).

As illustrated in FIG. 3, ω_(est) is used as the feedback of rotor speedfor the vector control performed by the current controller 110. Theintegrator 138 determines θ_(est) by integrating ω_(est). The estimatedrotor position angle θ_(est) is also fed back to the current controller110.

As described above, an embodiment of the present invention applies asensorless technique for determining rotor speed and position based oninstantaneous power in a FFC scheme. As illustrated for example in FIGS.5B and 5C, floating frame synchronization is achieved by first aligningthe current vector I_(ωt) with a selected floating reference frame,which is achieved by applying vector control in the current controller110 so that the reactive current I_(d) is minimized (step S308). Next,the current vector I_(ωt)/floating frame is aligned with the voltagevector V_(ωt) to achieve unity power factor (i.e., efficient floatingframe control of the power converter 20) (step S310). As illustrated forexample in FIG. 5C, the current vector I_(ωt) is aligned with thevoltage vector V_(ωt) by minimizing the power factor angle Δθ in thespeed/position estimating unit 130. By effectively de-coupling these twosteps of achieving a floating reference frame that is synchronized withrotor speed/position, tuning of the controller 100 is simplified.

1. A method of controlling a power converter of a synchronous machinesystem, said method comprising: sampling phase-current values betweensaid power converter and said synchronous machine; selecting a referenceframe; regulating a current vector to align with the reference frame,said selected reference frame having a direct-axis component and aquadrature-axis component; estimating rotor speed and position as afunction of instantaneous power, said step of estimating directlyderiving rotor angle as a function of instantaneous power to estimatesaid rotor position; adjusting said selected reference frame, based onestimated rotor position, to synchronize said selected reference framewith a magnetic axis of said rotor, thereby generating a synchronizedfloating frame; and applying said synchronized floating frame to controlsaid power converter.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein saidpower converter is an inverter.
 3. The method according to claim 1,wherein said synchronous machine is a permanent magnet synchronousmotor.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step ofestimating rotor speed and position is based on an instantaneous powerfactor angle:θ=Arctg(Q/P), where Q is imaginary power and P is real power.
 5. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein instantaneous power is calculatedas a function of a reference voltage vector and a feedback currentvector.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step ofselecting a reference frame performs a Clarke transform on saidphase-current values to calculate a stationary frame and performs a Parktransform to generate direct-axis and quadrature-axis components in arotating reference frame.
 7. The method according to claim 1, whereinsaid step of applying said synchronized floating frame to control saidpower converter performs motor torque control.
 8. The method accordingto claim 1, wherein said step of applying said synchronized floatingframe to control said power converter performs magnetic flux control. 9.A method of controlling a power converter of a synchronous machine drivesystem, said method comprising sampling phase-current values betweensaid power converter and said synchronous machine; selecting a referenceframe; regulating a current vector to align with the reference frame,said selected reference frame having a direct-axis component and aquadrature-axis component; estimating rotor speed and position as afunction of instantaneous power; adjusting said selected referenceframe, based on estimated rotor position, to synchronize said selectedreference frame with a magnetic axis of said rotor, thereby generating asynchronized floating frame; and applying said synchronized floatingframe to control said power converter, wherein said regulating stepaligns said current vector with the selected reference frame, such thata direct-axis component of said current vector becomes zero; and saidadjusting step aligns said selected reference frame and current vectorwith a voltage vector.
 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein saidselected reference frame and current vector are aligned to said voltagevector position by minimizing an imaginary power component of saidinstantaneous power.
 11. The method according to claim 9, wherein saidcurrent vector is aligned with the selected reference frame byminimizing a reactive current component.
 12. A power convertercontrolling apparatus for controlling a power converter of a synchronousmachine drive system, said controlling apparatus comprising: a currentcontroller for generating power converter command signals by: samplingphase-current values between said power converter and a synchronousmachine; selecting a reference frame; regulating a current vector toalign with the reference frame, said selected reference frame having adirect-axis component and a quadrature-axis component; adjusting saidselected reference frame, based on estimated rotor position, tosynchronize said selected reference frame with a magnetic axis of saidrotor, thereby generating a synchronized floating frame; and applyingsaid synchronized floating frame to control said power converter; and arotor position estimator for generating said estimated rotor position asa function of instantaneous power, said rotor position estimatordirectly deriving rotor angle as a function of instantaneous power toestimate rotor position.
 13. The controlling apparatus according toclaim 12, wherein said power converter is an inverter.
 14. Thecontrolling apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said synchronousmachine is a permanent magnet synchronous motor.
 15. The controllingapparatus according to claim 12, wherein said rotor position estimatorestimates rotor position based on an instantaneous power factor angle:θ=Arctg(Q/P), where Q is imaginary power and P is real power.
 16. Thecontrolling apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said rotor positionestimator calculates instantaneous power as a function of a referencevoltage vector and a feedback current vector.
 17. The controllingapparatus according to claim 12, wherein said current controller selectsa reference frame by performing a Clarke transform on said phase-currentvalues to calculate a stationary frame and performing a Park transformto generate direct-axis and quadrature-axis components in a rotatingreference frame.
 18. The controlling apparatus according to claim 12,wherein said current controller applies said synchronized floating frameto achieve motor torque control.
 19. The controlling apparatus accordingto claim 12, wherein said current controller applies said synchronizedfloating frame to control magnetic flux.
 20. A power convertercontrolling apparatus for controlling a power converter of a synchronousmachine drive system, said controlling apparatus comprising: a currentcontroller for generating power converter command signals by: samplingphase-current values between said power converter and a synchronousmachine; selecting a reference frame; regulating a current vector toalign with the reference frame, said selected reference frame having adirect-axis component and a quadrature-axis component; adjusting saidselected reference frame, based on estimated rotor position, tosynchronize said selected reference frame with a magnetic axis of saidrotor, thereby generating a synchronized floating frame; and applyingsaid synchronized floating frame to control said power converter; and arotor position estimator for generating said estimated rotor position asa function of instantaneous power, wherein said current controllerregulates said current vector to align with the selected referenceframe, such that said direct-axis component of said selected referenceframe becomes zero, and aligns said selected reference frame and currentvector with a voltage vector.
 21. The controlling apparatus according toclaim 20, wherein said current controller aligns said selected referenceframe and said current vector with said voltage vector position byminimizing an imaginary power component of said instantaneous power. 22.The controlling apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said currentcontroller aligns said current vector with the selected reference frameby minimizing a reactive current component.